Oliver DeMille

Oliver Van DeMille
Born Oliver Van DeMille
c. 1968
Hurricane, Utah
Residence Enoch, Utah, USA[1]
Known for Author of A Thomas Jefferson Education, co-author (with Orrin Woodward of LeaderShift
Home town Hurricane, Utah, USA
Spouse(s) Rachel (Pinegar) DeMille
Children 8
Website http://www.oliverdemille.com/

Oliver Van DeMille is an American author, educator and public speaker. He is the founder of an educational model known as TJEd, and the co-author of LeaderShift: A Call for Americans to Finally Stand Up and Lead, which was published in 2013 and appeared on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists.

History

DeMille was born and raised in Hurricane, Utah and attended Brigham Young University on an Air Force ROTC scholarship.[2] He took a two-year hiatus from his studies to fulfill an LDS mission in Barcelona, Spain, and subsequently married Rachel Pinegar in 1989. He and his wife have eight children.[3]

As an undergraduate student at Brigham Young University, DeMille was personally mentored by and worked independently with W. Cleon Skousen and submitted this work to Coral Ridge Baptist University (CRBU), an unaccredited school[4] which awarded him a B.A. (Biblical Studies) and M.A. (Christian Political Science) in 1992, and then a PhD (Religious Education) in 1994.[5] CRBU was a Bible college with a philosophy of close mentorship and intense studies, and the objective to train its graduates for service in military chaplaincy, education and ministry.[6][7] In 1994, DeMille returned to BYU and completed his B.A. in International Relations from BYU.[1]

DeMille characterizes his educational history as "a search for a truly great education – experiencing private and public universities, religious schools, corporate and international educational institutions, prestigious colleges and worthless diploma mills; he literally sampled the best and the worst that modern education has to offer, and virtually everything in between."[5]

According to his personal blog,[6] DeMille also submitted coursework to the "Technical Institute of Biblical Studies" (TIBS), which awarded him a PhD. Upon learning that TIBS was a diploma mill that had not actually reviewed the merit of his academic submissions, he publicly acknowledged that he had been duped, and called himself "an idiot."

DeMille also states that he studied law at LaSalle University (Louisiana),[8][9] which, based on its familiar name and credible marketing, he believed to be a well-known and established school. He learned later that its founder, who was no longer associated with the school, was jailed for running diploma mills in several states. Although under its new ownership the school continued to operate as a legitimate institution for several years, it never recovered from the taint of fraud and ultimately shut down.[10]

DeMille has said that he "unequivocally regret[s]" his interactions with TIBS and LaSalle, and that he is "glad that [his] 'controversial' choices, both good (leaving a successful private university experience to work with a personal mentor) and bad (learning first-hand about the way students can waste their time and even be taken advantage of by straying too far from the beaten path) were motivated by an earnest search for an education."[6]

George Wythe College/University

DeMille was a founder, teacher and administrator at George Wythe College (later University) from 1992 through 2010.[11][12] The Salt Lake Tribune reported that the college would be shutting down in 2016, and cited State of Utah Consumer Protection investigator Liz Blaylock as claiming that "the financial mistakes made by [previous administrators Oliver DeMille and Shanon Brooks] have acted like a 2-ton anchor around this tiny rowboat of a university."[13]

The Center for Social Leadership

DeMille is co-founder of The Center for Social Leadership, an action organization "dedicated to healing society, preserving freedom, and ensuring peace and prosperity for humanity,",[14] with its motto, "Empowering Ordinary Citizens to Make an Extraordinary Difference."[15]

Works

DeMille promotes an educational paradigm known as Thomas Jefferson Education (also known as Leadership Education). Most of his works, whether philosophical, political or educational, promote his view that the state of modern education is not favorable for reliably producing principled leaders of the caliber of Thomas Jefferson, while also conveying an overview of his philosophies and prescriptions for how individuals can provide themselves with a quality self-education and/or select an institution that will deliver an excellent learning experience. He asserts that a classical, mentored education empowers the individual to successfully meet the challenges of the time—whether as an educator, an entrepreneur, a community leader or a parent.

His works include:

References

  1. 1 2 "BYU Alumni Directory". BYU. Retrieved 2008-06-01.
  2. ↑ Mattie Glasson, "HHS graduates receive scholarships", The Daily Spectrum, 5/27/86
  3. ↑ DeMille, Oliver (2012-01-12). "Educational History of Oliver DeMille". Oliver DeMille Bio. oliverdemille.com. Retrieved 2012-01-12.
  4. ↑ David Corn and Stephanie Mencimer (October 11, 2012). "Romney Aided Fringe Utah College Founded by Right-Wing Conspiracy Theorist". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2012-10-16.
  5. 1 2 Author, Speaker, Educator, Consultant. Oliver DeMille. Retrieved on October 18, 2011.
  6. 1 2 3 DeMille states: "As a young man, I deliberately left a fully accredited university, BYU, where my costs (and more) were entirely paid by dual full-ride scholarships, and instead engaged a private mentor and a non-traditional school. Why? Because it afforded me a significantly better educational experience. I would do the same thing again. This is not to disparage the education I was receiving at BYU, for it met its purposes, and I had several professors at BYU who took special interest and time with me, and who contributed great value to my education. It's just that the closely-mentored guidance through original sources was so much better in terms of helping achieve my personal educational goals. I did some work with other mentors, but mainly Dr. W. Cleon Skousen; and the quality of my student experience with him I count as the best of my life up to that time. see: http://oliverdemille.com/about-oliver-demille/oliver-demille-history/
  7. ↑ DeMille [2009] A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-first Century, TJEdOnline, p. 15
  8. ↑ Not to be confused with La Salle University
  9. ↑ . OliverDeMille.com (April 10, 2009). Retrieved on January 2, 2012.
  10. ↑ See history of LaSalle University (Louisiana) at https://books.google.com/books?id=k67XC_7y5xEC&pg=PA273#v=onepage&q=&f=false
  11. ↑ See GWU comment on DeMille at http://news.gw.edu/?p=393
  12. ↑ See DeMille comment on GWU at http://oliverdemille.com/gw-mojo/
  13. ↑ http://www.sltrib.com/home/3082759-155/small-utah-college-with-big-political?fullpage=1
  14. ↑ The Center for Social Leadership. Thesocialleader.com. Retrieved on October 18, 2011.
  15. ↑ About Us | The Center for Social Leadership. Thesocialleader.com. Retrieved on October 18, 2011.
  16. ↑ ISBN 978-1-4555733-7-0
  17. ↑ Best Sellers - The New York Times
  18. ↑ WSJ Best-Selling Books - WSJ.com
  19. ↑ Top of U.S. bestseller list
  20. ↑ ISBN 978-0-9671246-1-2
  21. ↑ ISBN 978-0-9671246-4-3
  22. ↑ ISBN 978-0985338763
  23. ↑ ISBN 978-0-9895763-8-3
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